Galatians 4
Randy ®
Theme: Salvation is by grace, not works.
2. Because Christ freed us from the law (3-4)
D. The Law points to Christ (3:19 - 4:3)
E. Believers become adopted sons (4:6-20)
F. Believers are children of promise (4:21-31)
The Law points to Christ (4:1-3). Continuing in the thought
of 3:19-29, 4:1-3 shows how the Law is a road leading to the
cross. Before Christ came, God's people, like child heirs of
an inheritance, were under the guardianship and management of
the Law. Because of the weakness of our sinful nature, which
opposes God's will (Romans 7:7 - 8:8), the good Law only
motivated us to sin, convicted us of transgression, and
brought us under a curse (Deut. 27:26; cf. James 2:20; Romans
7). Like miserable tutorage, the Law shut us up in our sin
(Galatians 3:22), proving our inability to meet God's
standards, and leading us to see the need of Christ as an
atoning substitute. The Law points to Christ.
Believers become adopted sons (6-20). Christ, having born the
curse of the Law by hanging on a tree (3:14-15), is the end to
which the road of the Law leads. Through faith, He frees
believers from the curse and tutorage of the Law, making them
adult heirs in God's family (4-5; cf. 3:25-29). Since the
Galatians had become sons of God, and adult heirs through
faith in Christ(6-7), why would they return again to the
miserable tutorage and inevitable curse which any attempt to
merit God's blessing brings (8-9)? Contrary to their former
sense of blessing they expressed towards Paul's physical
infirmities (12-16), they were now yielding to the false
gospel of Judaizers (17-18), by observing OT rituals (10-11).
This perplexed Paul, giving him labor pains in his desire to
see them restored to freedom in Christ (19).
Believers are children of promise (21-31). God promised
Abraham blessing through his seed with Sarah (ultimately
salvation through Christ [Galatians 3:8]). After becoming
right with God through faith in this promise (Genesis 12:3;
15:6), Abraham, when no child was born to him through Sarah,
tried to achieve God's promise by fathering a child, in the
strength of his flesh, through Hagar the slave (16:1-4).
As Ishmael (a child born in an attempt to obtain God's
blessing in the strength of the flesh) persecuted Isaac (the
child born of the Spirit and promise of God [Genesis 21:8-9]),
so now the Judaizers (who taught a gospel of justification by
faith plus keeping the law) persecuted the true children of
God. God instructed Abraham to cast out the bondwoman and her
son (21:9-12), because Isaac, and not Ishmael, would inherit
God's promised blessing (typical of salvation through faith in
Christ [Galatians 3:8]). In the same way, believers, as
children born of the Spirit (not the flesh) freewoman (not the
slave), and promise (not personal merit), should throw out any
attempts to merit salvation in the strength of their flesh.
--
Have you heard Christ died for our sins, and God raised Him
from the dead? Did you know God saves you from hell and
gives you eternal life through faith in this finished work alone,
not your merits (Jn. 3:16; 1 Cor. 15:1-3; Eph. 2:8-10; 2 Thess.
1:8-9)? This is so man cannot boast, and God alone gets the
glory (Eph. 2:8-9).
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